Mace Appoints Raefield to Replace Ousted Paolino

Dennis Raefield, a veteran security industry executive, will replace Louis D. Paolino Jr. as president and CEO of Mace Security International, the company announced. Raefield will assume his role Aug. 18, taking over for board member Gerald LaFlamme who has served as interim president and CEO since Paolino was removed from his posts on May 20.

Raefield has been a member of Mace’s board of directors since October 2007 and currently serves as president of Reach Systems Inc., a manufacturer of security access control systems. He previously served as president of Ademco and Honeywell Access Systems, as well as Pinkerton Systems Integration Inc.

Paolino was removed as director and chairman of the company’s board of directors and terminated as chief executive officer for “willful misconduct” during a special session of the Mace board.

“The actions of Mr. Paolino that the board has determined as willful misconduct, generally relate to the board’s belief that Mr. Paolino has not followed the instructions of the board or sufficiently performed his supervisory duties,” Mace officials said in a press release.

Another board member, Jack Mallon, was appointed company chairman. Mallon is an attorney and managing director of Mallon Associates, an investment bank serving the security industry.

Paolino was the catalyst behind Mace’s foray into the carwash industry, when the company merged with Paolino’s American Wash Services venture in 1999. Paolino became Mace’s president, CEO and chairman of the board that year, and the publicly traded company quickly built a sizable carwash portfolio.

By 2006, Mace began dismantling its carwash segment in order to pay down debt and fund expansion of its security surveillance business. Since October 2006, Mace has reduced its number of carwashes from 46 to 16 current locations, including one in Sarasota, Fla., and 15 in Texas. All are for sale.

In June, Mace subsidiary Car Care Inc. and three of its managers pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the government, harbor illegal aliens and commit identity theft. Car Care managers hired illegal workers between 2000 and March 2006, giving them false names and a way to cash checks at a local bank without identification, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Even as illegal workers left the company, managers did not file termination papers, instead giving the names of former employees to new illegal workers in order to keep the scheme going, the Justice Department said.

Car Care was ordered to pay a $100,000 fine and forfeit $500,000 to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from the sale of the Pennsylvania and New Jersey carwashes. Mace sold the four carwashes in February 2007 for $7.7 million.

The three managers each face a maximum possible sentence of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and three years of supervised release.